A big unknown with President Donald Trump’s move Monday to federalize the DC Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard in the nation’s capital is how much he wants a crackdown versus the appearance of one. But with Trump’s now-repeated and historically extraordinary deployment of the Guard – and his comments about bringing this approach to other cities – he’s doing what he often does: gradually pushing the envelope and getting ever closer to what seems to be his desired outcome, which is a fuller militarization of the homeland. Esper has described a scene in which Trump asked him and Milley why the protesters couldn’t simply be shot “in the legs or something.” And in his 2022 book, he said a large part of his job that summer was “making sure to blunt or redirect any efforts that could politicize the military, misuse the force, or undermine the nation’s security.”
Author: Aaron Blake
Published at: 2025-08-12 22:00:00
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